Who’s Wii-nning the gaming wars?

The chips are down and the bets have been placed, the numbers tallied and the verdict is rolling in: Wii is winning. Surprised? We thought not.

With analysts placing early sales figures at between double and triple those of Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, with its innovative motion-sensitive handheld controller, proved itself to be one of the most popular gifts under the tree this holiday season.

"Wii was definitely the most popular by far," said Paul Webber, manager of EB Games near Victoria Park and Danforth Aves. "It was 10 to 1. Twenty to 40 people were lined up every morning in front of the store. A PS3 would take a whole day to sell while a Wii was gone in 20 minutes."

While holiday sales totals are the subject of much speculation on the web, the research firm NDP Group estimated that Wii's sales figures for November were more than double those of its technologically beefier competition. According to the firm, Wii sold 476,000 units, while the PS3's figures were put at 197,000.

In fact, those numbers may be low. In late November, Nintendo said it had sold 600,000 consoles in just the first eight days after its Nov. 19 launch across the Americas.

Sony has not released any sales totals for the PS3 and there's been no word yet on how robust Christmas sales have been – except to say, disappointments were rife: Finding a console before Christmas Day was difficult.

"Both products have been severely stock challenged," said Lori DeCou, spokeswoman for electronics retailer Best Buy. "As soon as they came, we were sold out."

While both consoles started out strong, demand for the PS3 may have begun to peter out due to the console's cost of up to $659.

"Anecdotally, the Wii certainly has beaten the PS3 over the holiday," says Brian Crecente, editor of Kotaku.com, a gaming website. "The people purchasing the Wii seem to be more happy with their purchase than the people who purchased the PS3."

And if the demand for Sony's gem has slumped, retailers and resellers online have noticed. Several advertisements on Craigslist, a website devoted to classified ads, are either selling Wii's at an inflated price, or asking for a trade.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/165735